Meriter's new management is intent on "solving" their parking woes by finding somewhere else to warehouse 250 non-patient care employees away from the Park St. facility. That was recently in the Capital Times and is undisputable. The remainder of this e-mail contains a bit of speculation and rumor.
The space they are looking at right now does not have bus service and is part of the ugly sprawl in Middleton between Hwy 14 and Airport Rd between the new Hwy 12 and Parmenter (old Hwy 12). The 250 who relocate will lose many employee amenities that are located at the Park St. location (gym, cafeteria, etc.) and there will be an increase in auto travel between the far west and Park St. for meetings. I don't know if anyone has asked from where these employees now commute or if the new office location is closer for any of them. I do know many who currently bus, bike and walk will no longer be able to do so. Meriter has chosen not to consult with the 250 affected employees to see if they like the idea or not. Meriter did something similar 3 or 4 years ago to about 100 staff when it re-located some from Park St. and consolidated its home health business on the beltline (in the retail strip mall also containing Steinhaufel's Furniture, etc.). The beltline strip mall at least is somewhat centrally located (east-west) and has bus service. There definitely is a shortage of parking at the Park St. hospital and it affects the ability of patients, visitors and employees to find easy parking. Unlike some other businesses, it is completely impossible to suggest that a hospital patient should just take a bus or bicycle, so the reality is parking is an absolute requirement for Meriter's customers. I wish I had access to the statistics regarding open parking spaces at peak times, but I do not. So it appears my job and 249 others are headed far-west by July 1st. The search for office space to lease or buy has been on-going for a while. I don't know if City of Madison is involved. I would think this would be a high priority for the City to keep business within the city limits. Does anyone know if there is a city office responsible for this kind of thing and whether they are engaged? I don't know what Madison's vacancy rate is for office space, but judging by the number of sterile office buildings in the Middleton sprawl periphery, it must be a very low rate. The state and UW certainly have locked up much of the downtown real estate. But I'd be happy with some place at least that gets decent bus service. I know that some more could be done to manage the demand-side of Meriter's parking problems. I don't think Meriter management has any faith that demand-management will magically find 200 parking spaces. But Meriter could do more. For instance, UW Hospital and St. Mary's Hospital gives employees free unlimited bus passes. Meriter does not (it does subsidize four 10-ride passes per month at half-price, but if you want five at that price, you can't get them). I don't know how other parking fees compare. Meriter employees pay a small (like 50ยข a day) fee via payroll deduction if they opt-in to an assigned parking stall. Doctors do not have to pay. Patients (one vehicle) do not have to pay. If you exit the ramp at night you can park and risk the daily parking fee but not pay since the parking attendant booth is nearly always unoccupied after 6:00pm. There are bike racks located within the car parking structure, so these are somewhat safe and out of the elements, which is nice. There are showers available. There is a free-ride home option if you commit to not driving a car. So they are definitely doing some things right. But looking at reducing employee demand has been half-hearted at best. It may be too late at this stage to keep the 250 staff at the Park campus. Personally I am hoping the far-west real estate they're eyeing falls through and something more transit- and bicycle-friendly comes available. Society is subsidizing the cost of automobile-friendly, human-scale unfriendly sprawl, making this very complex logistical move by Meriter possible financially. If anyone on this list has any ideas or knows if the city is engaged (and if not, who I contact) please pass that information along. _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
